Every year the fifth graders at Barnett Elementary are able to research an important person in United States history, create a speech, come up with a creative costume, and present themselves as that person during a wax museum presentation.  The students this year did an amazing job coming up with creative costumes to try to imitate the person they were representing.  Not only did they look great, but the students put a lot of time into researching their person and competently gave information as about 500 people filed through the lunch room on the afternoon of May 2, 2013.

If you haven't seen the YouTube craze entitled, Kid History videos, you should definitely watch them!  Not only are they hilarious, they are related to the Barnett first grade teacher, Mrs. Patricia Hanson.  Mrs. Hanson was able to introduce her nephews to the Barnett students on Friday, April 26, to shouts of excitement and acclamation.

April 25, 2013 marked a beautiful, sunny, clear day for the fifth grade track meet. Students were able to compete with other fifth graders in the Payson area in this annual event.  Barnett fifth graders placed in first, second, and third places in several of the track and field events.  It was a fun and exciting time for all the students and teachers.

The students of Mrs. Spencer’s sixth grade class at Barnett Elementary had the opportunity of working on a quilt for the Veterans Nursing home that is under construction on North Main Street in Payson. Belle Piatt, a grandmother of one the students, provided the squares of material and the skills of her sewing to put it together. The students in Mrs. Spencer’s class decorated the pieces with the freedoms they enjoy because of the service provided by the loyal and brave American veterans.

The Barnett Transitional Kindergarten class went to the Payson Fire Station and we learned about fire safety. We got to see a fire fighter dressed up in his clothes that keep him safe in a fire. He looked a lot different with his fireman clothes on! We learned how to crawl on the floor if there is smoke in the room and how to feel a door with the back of our hands to see if it is hot. If it is hot, we should NOT open the door. We even got to spray the fire hose!  

On April 19, the first grade students at Barnett Elementary went on a field trip to Hogle Zoo. It was such a fun day and the students were able to see many animals. Some of their favorite animals to see were the giraffes, polar bears, and monkeys. 

Barnett Elementary 4th Grade students went on a field trip to Utah Naural History Museum on March 29th.  The students and parent chaperones experienced the wonders of Utah's History and science that are unique to the state of Utah.  Everything from prehistoric dinosaurs and Native American Indians to the environments that we have been studying this year.

While Spanish is an obvious language choice for many around Utah to learn and most high schools in the Nebo School District offer Spanish, German, Japanese, and Mandarin; yet, few to no secondary schools offer their students the chance to learn French.  French has a rich history in the world--at one time being THE dominant language of the aristocracy in Europe and Russia, and the language of most colonized African countries.

The middle of March was broken up with a few educational, fun assemblies. One of these assemblies was the Salzburger Echo Arts Academy assembly.  These are musicians who make music based off of the music in Salzburg, Austria, using the concept of echo throughout their music.  Not only did they teach us how to yodel--and meet Yodel Man--they played music using a variety of instruments--trumpet, accordian, alp horn, and even getting the teachers involved with the cowbells!

The fifth grade invited the Utah County K-9 officers to come for their incentive program for the month of March. The students who came loved learning about these special dogs from Europe who cost as much as a used car! These dogs learn to smell and find narcotics, bombs and people who may be lost in remote areas. They also enjoyed learning how they train them to be very obedient and how everything these officers teach these dogs is a game to them!